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Friday, August 9, 2013

POETRY FRIDAY: Cinquain Poetry

Thanks to Renee at No Water River for hosting Poetry Friday today!In fourth grade this past year, my boys learned
about cinquain poetry. I hadn’t played with this format in years, so I put it
in my “ideas” file to tackle in an upcoming Poetry Friday post. The cinquain is a fun,
succinct format that is perfect for kid and adult poets alike, and I am excited
to explore it more today—I do love short and sweet poetry, after all!Basically, a
cinquain poem is a five-line poem that spotlights a person, place, or thing.
Each line has a prescribed formula and minimal words, which can be helpful
for young poets who crave structure in their writing. (As a kid, I loved using outlines
for papers and stories, and the whole 5-paragraph essay formula was definitely
my friend! I still outline today when writing longer works, but that is a whole
other topic that I will post about one day soon...)The cinquain format also naturally encourages kids
to chose their words very carefully, and to *think* of words that really
encapsulate their chosen topic. There are several variations of cinquain
poetry, but for the purposes of this post I am focusing on the format most
commonly found in the elementary curriculum. Here is an example that I came up
with, followed by the “recipe” for a cinquain:

summer

hot, sunny

laughing, playing,
relaxing

campfires and
starry nights

holiday

Line
#1:
a noun/one-word subject

Line
#2:
two adjectives that describe your subject

Line
#3:
three verbs that end in –ing related to your subject

Line
#4:
a phrase about your subject

Line
#5:
another noun that is a synonym for your subject

Here is another fun cinquain (yes, I am
aware that I sound like an eight-year-old girl here…☺):

I will have to do a "Cinquain Part 2" post sometime! The 2 4 6 8 2 format is the earliest cinquain format--I think the poet's name who developed it was Adelaide Crapsey. It is so interesting to me how poetic forms evolve!